not the spirit: and all are in sin and vanity, and are not freed from the law of condemnation, but who are in the spirit.

P. He saith, They are to feed the people, who are ordained over a particular place, over which the holy ghost hath made them overseers; and they are covetous wretches and worldings that keep back their tithes. And no more wages he receives than what the gospel allows. And he is a thief that keeps back the hire from the labourer, and the Lord gives man tithes as a portion in the earth,' &c. See pages 57, 58, 59, 60.

A. The holy ghost made the apostles and elders overseers of the church. But you have been made overseers by men, by the pope, by your schools and colleges. So thus you deceive the people, by telling them the holy ghost made you overseers. For ye say ye have not the same infallible spirit as the prophets, Christ, and the apostles had, as witness Samuel Eaton in his book, and divers others. Tithes were allotted by God to the priests and Levites, and people in the first covenant and priesthood, and they were robbers that kept them back; but Christ is come, the everlasting covenant, who ends the first covenant, tithes, and priesthood, and blots out the ordinances. Therefore they that are covetous, will take them by violence from the people. But they that are come to the gospel allowance, 'freely ye have received, freely give,' what they set before them, of that they are to eat, preach the gospel, and live of the gospel. These triumph and trample upon the first priesthood, types, figures, and shadows; see that the priesthood is changed, the ordinances blotted out, the commandment disannuled that gave them; witness the one offering for the sin of the whole world, and are of the royal priesthood. Such as these cannot pay tithes; covetous persons and worldlings may take them, that are apostatized from the apostles, by whom the true seed is oppressed; who went forth from the apostles by a usurped authority, under whom you are sheltered for your tithes, which were set up by the pope's authority. But now you are seen and judged by them who are come to the apostles that you went from. P. He saith, The Lord hath given tithes for the maintenance of the ministry of this nation.' Again he saith, This light within is turned into utter darkness,' pages 62. 65.

A. It has been the Pope and the apostates from the apostles that have given tithes; from the spirit that the apostles were in they are ravened that take them, for the apostles took none. Their fruits in the nation declare it; if they will not give the priests tithes, how they cast them into prisons, and dungeons, until death! Christ's maintenance the apostles witnessed; freely they had received, and they gave again freely; and he that preached the gospel lived of the gospel,' and coveted no man's silver, goods, nor apparel. But do not ye covet men's silver and goods,

when ye take treble damages of them, and cast them into prison? Is not this the work of the ministry of the nation? Is not the overflowing scourge of the Almighty gone over you? and the rod and the lash come upon you all?

Again, the light within hath led to the light of life, and leads to the light of life, out of utter darkness, in which those and thy generation are seen that stand against the light. So all you apostates are whelmed under in the apostacy since the days of the apostles, who are out of the allowance of Christ, his wages and maintenance, the giving freely, which shows they have not received of God, but buy and sell, yea and after great rates too; and so are the merchants that John speaks of in the Revelations: and this cumbers the creation, yea, nations; ye bring not the glad tidings to them, but burthen them: ye are seen and felt. P. He saith,' away with your bodily, fleshly, literal trembling and quivering.' See page 70.

A. Habakkuk's lips quivered, David's flesh trembled, Daniel trembled, Paul trembled, David's bones quaked; and that man the Lord regards who trembles at his word, though cast out by thee and thy generation in this age, as in the days of Isaiah. So thou and thy generation, who say 'away with trembling of the flesh and body,' say, away with the power of God that throws down that which defiles the flesh. Before sin is condemned in the flesh, and the powers of darkness wrought out of it, you must know trembling; thou and all thy generation, before the devil be dispossessed of your earthly tabernacles, you must know trembling; and thou and thy generation have showed your ignorance of the mighty power of God, the salvation that is wrought out with fear and trembling.' And of that power that in all ages threw down the nature that captivated the seed of God, and defiled the flesh, and darkened the understanding, the sense, and reason, and warred against the soul, ye have showed your ignorance of that power whereby the body, soul, and spirit come to be sanctified. And before this be so, ye must know a bodily trembling and shaking; but he cries, away with it' before ever he came to it, lest he should be tormented before his time; who is one of them who ever were against the holy men of God. But the power of the Lord God has overtaken thee, and with that are ye comprehended, and ye are in the press, and your cluster is full, and the sickle is gone out.

P. He saith, The priesthood is changed, but not the tithes abolished by the coming of any substance; and he that keeps back the tithes. of God, hath preferred his mammon before his God, and is guilty of the sin of Ananias: and denying to pay tithes is weakening the bands of the ministers: and God in wisdom hath provided by an outward law, in the absence of the inward, for the maintenance of the ministry by tithes or other maintenance, and so they own a tribute unto God; and so they

must pay tribute, and custom to whom custom is due.' Again he saith, 'custom, tribute, tithes, &c. love will teach these things are due, therefore covet not another's portion.'

A. When the apostle had spoken of tithes, before the law, to Melchisedeck like unto the son of God; and spoken of tithes to the priesthood made by a law that had a command to take them; he said the priesthood was changed, the law was changed, the command was disannuled that gave tithes, the son of God was come, the end of the similitude and likeness before the law. Now,' saith he, of the things (tithes were things before the law and in the law) which we have spoken, this is the sum: Christ a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which God hath pitched and not man.' So there is the sum of the things, and the substance; and the plenteous redemption, that leads men out of the earth, that brings them to lay down all at the feet of the apostles, which is beyond tenths which were due to the service of the Lord. Here the earth comes to be known to be the Lord's, is given up, and man redeemed out of it. Of this glorious gospel are ye all ignorant. And so tithes are not to be compared with Ananias, and not to be viewed as a tribute, but as a custom which has got up since the days of the apostles, in the apostacy, the nations having drunk the whore's cup, and kings and queens, that had gone out of the power of Christ which the apostles were in, into the beast's power, have made schools to make their ministers, and have made laws to set up tenths. So this custom of the sin hath taken away the sense of it, that people have been so hardened that they have torn people, spoiled their goods, and cast them into prison, and taken treble damages, and kept them in prison, and haled them before courts and sessions, assizes, and benches. Which is not like the ministers of Christ; for the law is changed of God that gave tenths, and since that was changed the law is in the heart, and a new covenant. And since the apostacy men have got the sheep's clothing, ravened from the spirit, wolves, whose fruits declare it; who havé deceived nations, and the world, and have got up a law from man, and a command from man, the pope being the author. The law and command of God are changed that gave tithes, and they have got up the law and command of man to take them, and the law of God and his command are denied, as spoken by the apostle, Heb. vii. But all that are in the wisdom of God see over these things, and feel over them, and judge you all, and execute judgment, and are in the power and authority to execute judgment, and convince all, and are in the honour of saints. So your ministry, if tithes fall, is weakened; but the ministry of Christ came in when tithes fell, and that ministry fell that held up tithes, and that priesthood during which the priests' lips were to preserve the people's knowledge. So by the fall of that minis

try that took tithes, the ministry of Christ came in. The rise of this ministry is since the days of the apostles in the apostacy, that is made by kings, bishops, popes, schools, and colleges. Tithes falling, the hands of this ministry that takes tithes, thou sayst, is weakened; it is not, therefore, the power of God that strengthens the hand, but the earthly. Now I say, in the fall of the maintenance, which weakens this ministry, have showed what ye are covered withal, and in the fall of this is the rise of the Lamb and his ministry, the preaching of the everlasting gospel; and the everlasting gospel shall be preached to them that dwell on the earth, which is the power of God: and though the devil, and the beast, and the false prophets, and the kings of the earth do make war against the saints and the Lamb, yet the saints and the Lamb shall get the victory.

ye

P. He saith, 'Christ without the church doth not comprehend all the elect; and we are not elected, though we receive Christ, because we are elected in him,' &c. page 80.

A. Thou art meddling with things too weighty for thee, Christ is the elect whom God upholds, and the election obtains it, (the victory,) and Christ knows his, and said he had other sheep, and he knew all the elect. And he is the wisdom of the Father, the light, the life, and the power of God, the offering, the sacrifice for the whole world, the redemption of mankind. And who receive him, and are in him, are the elect, and out of their own works, and have possessed him, and his image and glory; are come to the throne of grace; he is in all and over all, the salvation to the ends of the earth, and they who are elected receive Christ, and are in him.

P. He saith, Thy denial of sin, and satan, and antichrist, to be where they are in power and part, is the old trick of the evil one,' &c. page 83.

A. They who are come into the Lamb's power, are come out of the power of the beast, sin, and satan; into the city, the paradise of God, where no unclean thing enters, but the tree of life is the food; and they are atop of sin, satan, and antichrist, and all thy tricks; and witness against all sin.

P. He saith, When the dissolution comes, he bids farewell to all the saints of God,' page 94. Again, 'If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar,' page 89.

A. The saints are in Christ and God; and at the dissolving of the earthly, or sin, they do not bid all the saints farewell; for then they come into unity with them, with the elect. And John shows there was a time to see they had sinned, and a time to see they had sin, and a time to confess it and forsake it, and a time to witness the blood of

Jesus Christ to cleanse from all sin, a time to witness the birth of God born, which doth not commit sin, and the seed of God remaining in them, that the wicked one could not touch them.

P. He saith, The saints are neither in the fulness of the godhead, nor part: away with this blasphemy that saith this,' &c. page 92.

A. The work of the ministry was to bring people to the knowledge of the son of God, to a perfect man, to the unity of the faith, to the measure and stature of the fulness of Christ, and Christ will dwell in the saints, and God will dwell in them. And thou say st they have no part of the fulness of the godhead; but John saith, 'Of his fulness have we all received;' in whom dwells the godhead bodily. And ye are all in the blasphemy that are out of this part of the fulness.

P. He saith, The Quakers know a man whether he be a saint or a devil, as soon as they see him, or hear him speak, or act, and they are beyond all our forefathers. And the apostle saith, "What man knoweth the things of a man, saving the spirit of a man that is in him,” so ye are not as Christ in this respect.' And thou sayst thou art as Christ in this present world: and no man can be without sin in this house of clay.' And sayst, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me; and my flesh is sin's freehold,' &c. pages 94,95.

A. Here thou hast showed that the Quakers have a spirit given to them beyond all the forefathers (which we do witness) since the days of the apostles, in the apostacy. And they that are in the power and the life of truth, can discern who are saints, who are devils, and who are apostates, without ever speaking a word. And the natural man knows not the things that are in another man; but with the spirit within him may know what is in himself: but the spiritual man searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God. Here thou hast made no distinction betwixt the spiritual and natural. And as Christ is, so are we in this present world;' and where Christ is manifest, he destroys sin in the flesh; here they come to be as he is, they come to be above clay and mortal, and fading, and so the flesh, which thou calls sin's freehold, comes to be put off, and the body of it, and they come to be made free from the law by the body of Christ. And the creature comes into the liberty of the sons of God. And this the saints witnessed while they were on earth. And as thou wast born in iniquity, thou showest thou wast born in the unregeneration; there were some sanctified from the womb, there are some children clean, who are believers. He that can receive it, let him. So thou art an ignorant man, not able to divide the word aright, nor canst minister unto the people, not knowing the condition they are in, unless they tell thee, and so art apostatized from the apostles, and not one of the ministers of the spirit, that minister to the spirit; for could not the apostles preach and speak